Omaha daily bee., 1887-09-22
THINGS A LlNEMAN SEES.
Peeps Into Second Story Windows.

Peeps Into Second Story Windows.
II Peeping Tom had lived in modern
days he would have come to New York,
and been lineman, says tho Sun. A
lineman is man who has the privilege OF
climbing up poles and looking in at
everybodys windows at any hour of tho
day or night. The linemen are the prop
crty of the telegraph, telephone, electric
light, and other'companies that prcempt
the atmosphere for their business, as
other people buy land for factories.
There are several hundred Of them in
New York and vicinity. They all 60
spurred like fighting cocks. but are
marked by an entire absence of strut and
style in other respects. The reason is
that it doesn't pay to wear good clothes
in shining up dirty poles and clinging
to the ragged edges OF grimy cross-bars.
The lineman on duty is about as unkempt
a specimen rs can be found among those
who earn their living by honest work.
1t is doubtful II the linemen exercise
fully the privileges that they. have as
pryers. For the peace Of mind OF sew
eral thousand estimable citizens who
have telegraph poles opposite their resi-
dences, it is hoped that they do not. AL
though they are constantly popping up
on level with the upper windows, where
look in, all the linemen say that they
rarely see anything worth speaking of on
their nrlal tours of duty An eXplana-
| ton oi the linemen's Indifference to the
sights they see was offered by ono of them
| yesterday after he had listened to the
story. Of the Lady Godiva.
well, he said, u! 'sposc what Peepin''
| Tom see was worth lookln' at, but if he'd
looked at ehairful of corsets and
| switches and patent things, maybe he
| wouldn't have seen anything to blind his
eyes. Leastways never heard of any
! lineman goIn' blind on account OF what
| he saw. There was one feller that never
could see anything in particular after he
| looked at a Six-foot spark, from where
| light WIRE had crossed Il telegraph line,
| but that's the nearest ever hearn to any
| Peepin Tom business among US
Formerly this jack o. the wires. that
| climbs abroad on II level with bedroom
windows in the weird hours OF the before
a-late-breakfast nap, or fits up and down
| for trouble in the wires, was great
| deal more numerous II feature OF the
| metropolitan landscape than he IS at
| present. The large companies are get.
| ting their wires together into cables ana
| running them along business streets as
much as possible, while many OF them
are going underground. The telephone
| linemen are still numerous and ubiquit-
Gus. Most of their lines run over the
| housetOps. Getting up to the roof to fix
| wire is pretty certain and definite Op-
Grafton. Somebody's consent has to be
| asked before any stairs are climbed But
| getting down again Is a different matter.
| LINEN en- work good deal on the get.
there principle. If a pair of stairs lead
down the lnemen isn't apt to make any
| particular inquiry as to whethec it is the
pair he came up. The chances are that
IL is half block away from that pail, and
leads down through somebody's living
rooms, where the lineman Is apt to MAKE
Il very unexpected addition to family
| party.
! There are some other things that differ
| ent linemen allege they have seen in the
! course of their professional careers.
| A small boy getting spanked.
| A mother watching her child die.
| A dude putting on his complexion.
Thirty-siX Italians living in one room.
One baby spillng water over another.
| stack of chips and a man with four aces.
A husband watching the weighing OF his
A drunken man buying wine for three
| giddy girls.
A young man kissing a girl behind her
Bddy from the kitchen trying on the
A sick girl nursing rose bush on tene-
| ment window sill.
Two countrymen being aoeced by a brace
| game OF POKER
Two girls making shirts for twenty-nine
| cents day apiece.
young man calling on his girl and try
| ing to economist gas.
A cat Jumping on a canary's cage (linemen
yelled and bird was saved).
A cat Just about to be hit Dy an empty bot
tie coming from an upper window.
A father, mother and four children making
meal off of q boiled soup bone and three
potatoes.
Seventeen anarchists hiding In the corner
of the room until the policeman on the beat
went by.
pitcher of water on its way down to .
ssrenader who was playing ''Sweet ViOlets"
on a guitar.
A baby pulling dogs tail, and three cats
keeping watch over the body of an old woman
who had starved to death in garrett.